Lions' offensive weapons ranked 22nd by ESPN

Lions' offensive weapons ranked 22nd by ESPN

The Lions have an excllent quarterback just entering his prime, an offensive line loaded with top draft picks and high-priced free agents and plenty of reasons to be excited about their offense in 2017.

But a franchise that owes most of its meager accomplishments over the last 30 years to a handful of skill-position superstars has been left without any, according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell.

“The Lions have plenty of weapons who have flashed usefulness, but their only reliable threat seems to be Golden Tate,” Barnwell wrote. “Marvin Jones averaged just 40.1 yards per game after a blazing hot three-game start last season, while Eric Ebron has the league’s highest drop rate (7.9 percent) among receivers with 200 targets or more since he entered the league in 2014.”

The Lions’ backfield, of course, wasn’t spared critique.

“Ameer Abdullah missed 14 games last season and wasn’t effective as a rookie,” Barnwell continued, “while Theo Riddick has been an excellent receiver without offering much more than replacement-level running.”

The play of Matthew Stafford, and his much-improved ability to make layups to Tate and Riddick, carried the Lions to the playoffs last year. But quarterbacks, in this ranking, don’t count:

It’s as if I said these rankings were specifically designed not to consider the quarterback in the introduction https://t.co/gEYDPqP4Wv

Part of Jones’ remarkable cooling off last year was due to the Lions’ offensive downshift. Should Detroit’s improvements on defense allow them to open up the throttle, Jones (and Ebron, and Tate) should be able to make more downfield plays. That, in turn, should open up the field for Tate, Abdullah and Riddick.

But the optimism of what might be different once the Lions hit the field in 2017 can’t define on-paper rankings at the beginning of training camp, and Barnwell’s not wrong about where Detroit’s offensive weapons have proven they can do.

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